PRODUCING ADULTS (LAPSIA JA AIKUISIA) International Feature Competition

Finland’s official Oscar® selection for Best Foreign Language Film, Aleksi Salmenpero’s debut feature, PRODUCING ADULTS, is a stirring film about standing at the brink of adulthood.

Venla works as a psychologist at a fertility clinic. She dreams of having a child with her long-term boyfriend, Antero. When his secret vasectomy seriously reduces her options, her mind turns to the storeroom at work, housing millions of sperm samples lying dormant in liquid nitrogen. He is tall with brown hair and blue eyes-that’s all she knows about the future father. Her dreams of creating an ordinary family life start to crumble when symptoms of a romantic kind start to blossom between her and Satu, a sympathetic female doctor who has agreed to help her.

As the profoundly ironic title suggests, the characters aren’t struggling to raise children, they’re struggling to raise themselves. Addressing adult themes of friendship and fertility; and men and women’s responsibility to each other and to themselves-themes rarely explored in films today – PRODUCING ADULTS is a deeply moving film with an original voice, clear and resonant.